Call for Programmes/Productions

The organizers of the Festival are pleased to announce the updated Call for two categories of audio-visual production:

Interactive New Media Productions

One Minute Videos edited from footage shot on a mobile phone.

All productions are for themes based on science and technology. The deadline for entering in these two categories is Friday 6 November. The shortlist and winners in these two categories will be announced at the awards evening. For all other categories the shortlists will be announced before the festival.

A reminder that the Festival and Awards Evening are now combined as a single two day event in Lisbon, Portugal, from 24 to 25 November 2015. The venue will be the celebrated Sao Jorge theatre in the centre of Lisbon, with its three cinemas.

There will be ten awards decided in Lisbon, and one further award decided by young people from different countries in Europe. All Categories/Prizes are listed below. The screenings will be complemented by panel led discussions and keynote talks on themes relating to Science and the TV/AV media. This year there will also be discussions after each screening of the productions shortlisted by the international jury. The Awards will be presented in Lisbon in a special evening on the second day of the event at the Sao Jorge Theatre in central Lisbon, on 25 November.

Entry Criteria and Background

There are four TV and New Media categories, with a prize in each, plus four further categories and prizes as described below, reflecting “Science in society” issues. There also four further categories focusing on young people and the wider educational and scientific community.

A production can be eligible in more than one category; these may be designated either by the entrant or the organizers. The “genre” categories are:

The Best European Production involving Science in the following four genres:

TV Documentary

TV Drama and Docu-drama

TV General programmes like magazines or current affairs (an item or a complete programme)

Informational or promotional Video and Productions for the Web or Science Centres/Museums

The four so-called “Science in Society” areas are:

The Environment

Medical Research

Women in Science

The best interactive new media production voted by the festival audience (excluding the professional jury or the programme-makers involved).

And four categories focused on young people and the wider educational and scientific community:

The Young Jury Prize for best Science TV Documentary, voted on by young people in many countries across Europe

The best one minute science based video edited from footage shot on a mobile phone from a teenager.

The best production promoting an individual branch of science – Physics in (2015) being the International Year of Light

There will also be dialogue created on Facebook and Twitter in relation to issues in the films and in the festival discussion. This will be flagged in advance and continue during the festival.

Specific themes will be chosen for the Festival and Awards talks and discussion session in which both the scientific and media communities are stakeholders. The potential topics are currently under review.

These will have a wider focus than the short seminars associated with individual productions, which will develop issues specifically raised by the productions. Representatives of short-listed programmes/productions will be invited to Lisbon.

ELIGIBILITY

Programmes and productions will be eligible if they were first broadcast or released in 2013 or later up to the end of April 2015. A production first broadcast or released before 1 January 2013 may be accepted if the producers or broadcaster are new to the festival and only became aware of it recently. This will be at the discretion of the organizers. They must also have been produced for first transmission or release (or shared first) in Europe, and not have been entered for a previous edition of this festival (other than through an error of transmission date). There needs to be a significant science or technology content in any entry, which may also be the stories of individual scientists or engineers and their lives.

If you are not sure if a programme or production would qualify, please feel free to discuss any such questions with the organizers’ London office at EuroPAWS, (pawsomni@btconnect.com or tel: 0044 20 7483 4545). Contact person: Andrew Millington, the Festival Director. In the final analysis, the selection decision of the organizers will be final.

THE LOCATION OF FESTIVAL AND AWARDS

Cinema S. Jorge is a very well known and a beautiful Cinema-Theatre in the centre of Lisbon (http://www.cinemasaojorge.pt)

It was a traditional cinema for 50 years and since 2000 it is owned by the City of Lisbon. It is home to several of the most important culture events in Lisbon, from conferences to cinema festivals. It has a main theatre with 830 seats with a stage adapted to theatre performances. There are two other rooms with 150 and 200 seats.

The Festival and Awards 2015 is organized jointly by Ciencia Viva, Lisbon, EuroPAWS and EuroScience.